Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

Anthems for Authors – Rewrite

Being an author can make for a lonely life. Other than each other, many times we have no one to encourage or praise us – or even validate our existence. So when I hear a song about being a writer, I revel in the fact that someone wrote a song “for us.” In this case, I believe Paul Simon did just that.

My favorite lines from this song are: “workin’ on the rewrite, I’m gonna turn it into cash.” The last verse, too, is great – he really takes a pot shot at commercialization. I think you’ll enjoy it. And now, Rewrite by Paul Simon.

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A Helping Hand…Self-editing

editingI’m not going to suggest that self-editing should substitute a proper independent edit, but I have lost count of the number of times, after handing back a manuscript, post-edit, I have been told, “I can’t believe I didn’t spot that” or “I’m so embarrassed I missed that”. So, I wonder if I might be so bold as to offer one or two hints and tips for self-editing to help save a few red faces. Continue reading “A Helping Hand…Self-editing”

Entitled

Oh my god, okay, so there’s this thing, right? Did you hear? There are these people, just ordinary people like you and me except they got lucky because there’s this revolution going on and people are bulldozing the libraries all across America right now and taking apart those Barns’n’No-Bull stores or whatever they’re called, which is, ha, funny, because it’s like that saying about locking the barn door after… anyway, I gotta tell you this, it’s so cool, and you’ll never believe it, but back to these lucky folks, one of them is called Joe Konehead and there’s even this really young chick named Amanda Hawking (I think she’s the little sister of that handicapped spacegeek with the creepy computer voice), and they heard about this new book revolution, only they’re not books, they’re eBooks and, oh my god, LOL, this is so amazing, you gotta keep listening. So they made, like, more money than Jesus at a Casino thanks to these iKindles and MaxiPads and all the other eReaders that all these big companies are now making especially for the eBooks, and you know, here’s the thing, you can now go sell your eBooks on them since it’s so easy, anyone can do it… Continue reading “Entitled”

Getting it Right: Narrow Escapes (part 2 of 3)

Author Carolyn Steele

by Carolyn Steele

You want to put your readers through the wringer. Your character might die, might pull through, we’re all waiting to know. Will they make a rapid recovery? Remain permanently disabled? Return from a near-death experience to write books about life?

Episode 2: Narrow Escapes (if you missed it, part 1 can be found here.) Continue reading “Getting it Right: Narrow Escapes (part 2 of 3)”